By When performer Varada Sethu was announced to be involved in the original cast for the forthcoming Doctor Who season 2, some fans expressed their excitement. This is due to Sethu’s previous appearance in Doctor Who, and not just that—quite recently as well.
As you might recall, in the last season’s spectacular episode ‘Boom‘, Sethu portrayed a character named Mundy Flynn, a marine engaged in a conflict on the planet Kastarion 3. However, in the upcoming season, she will take on a completely different role as Belinda Chandra, a nurse who accompanies the Doctor on adventures through time and space.
The trailers for the new season hint at a connection between these two characters, with showrunner Russell T Davies confirming in an interview with GamesRadar that Belinda is a descendant of Mundy. However, the question arises— is this the full story, just a coincidence, or is there more depth to it?
We posed that question to Davies before the new series airs, who indicated that viewers shouldn’t worry too much about the connection since it doesn’t play a crucial part in the plot. He elaborated that he didn’t want the show to be weighed down by continuity: “It plays a minor role because the main storyline is about getting Belinda home. The fact that she is linked to someone from the Doctor’s past is treated lightly.”
Davies continues: “It’s never my intention to encumber the show with so much continuity that it becomes confusing. I always believe that it’s part of the nature of an anthology series that each episode is unique. Therefore, each week you need to start fresh, and it creates an unnecessary burden on the show if you have to keep up with extensive current continuity. So, acknowledging that the Doctor, as he states, has met one of Belinda’s ancestors, with her being Mundy’s ancestor, adds a nice extra detail.”
Nevertheless, despite Davies’s comments, he does hint at the possibility that there might indeed be unexpected revelations.